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Published by Film at Lincoln Center

Michael Sragow

Deep Focus: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

By Michael Sragow
December 15, 2016
The franchise (re)awakens: calculation drives the latest entry in the inescapable space saga, but it doesn't add up to joy

Deep Focus: La La Land

By Michael Sragow
December 8, 2016
No time like the present: with all-vintage elements, Damien Chazelle offers up a tourist's love letter to Los Angeles

Deep Focus: Lion

By Michael Sragow
December 1, 2016
Search history: Garth Davis's soulful retelling of a miraculous homecoming is buoyed by Dev Patel

Deep Focus: Rules Don’t Apply

By Michael Sragow
November 23, 2016
Genius of the system: Warren Beatty expertly pairs the eccentricities of Howard Hughes with a sweet, nostalgic love story

Deep Focus: Nocturnal Animals

By Michael Sragow
November 17, 2016
This is your life: Tom Ford's hyperstylized adaptation of Austin Wright's novel shoots for profound and lands in soap opera

Deep Focus: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

By Michael Sragow
November 11, 2016
Star-spangled to death: Ang Lee's maximalist treatment of a soldier's homecoming puts flash over story

Deep Focus: Loving

By Michael Sragow
November 3, 2016
Rightfully yours: Jeff Nichols's portrait of the Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage in all 50 states leans too heavily on cliché to be truly powerful

Deep Focus: By Sidney Lumet

By Michael Sragow
October 27, 2016
Block by block: the director of Network and Long Day’s Journey Into Night reflects on his films in an oversimplified documentary

Deep Focus: Tampopo

By Michael Sragow
October 20, 2016
Never let me gyoza: Juzo Itami's sensual, savory classic returns to theaters in a new restoration

Deep Focus: Christine

By Michael Sragow
October 14, 2016
TV movie: Antonio Campos's tick-tock imagining of the struggles and suicide of Christine Chubbuck falters, despite Rebecca Hall's best efforts

Deep Focus: Denial

By Michael Sragow
September 29, 2016
Outrage: the mindboggling story of a Holocaust denier suing for libel couldn't be timelier, but it fails on a storytelling level

Deep Focus: Queen of Katwe

By Michael Sragow
September 22, 2016
En passant: Mira Nair's big-hearted, real-life story of an African chess wunderkind is energized by kinetic performances

Deep Focus: Snowden

By Michael Sragow
September 15, 2016
Water on the keyboard: Oliver Stone's biopic of the superstar hacktivist is too puffed up to be truly thrilling

Deep Focus: Sully

By Michael Sragow
September 8, 2016
Grace under fire: Eastwood's disaster film with a happy ending is most successful when it sticks to the facts

Deep Focus: The Light Between Oceans

By Michael Sragow
September 1, 2016
Adaptation, unmoored: Derek Cianfrance gets lost in a sea of treacle

Deep Focus: Jeff Bridges and Hell or High Water

By Michael Sragow
August 25, 2016
Crazy heart: the seasoned actor who brought The Dude to life shines in a compromised story

Deep Focus: Ben-Hur

By Michael Sragow
August 18, 2016
Blood and sandals: the third adaptation of Lew Wallace’s Christ parable is unredeemable

Deep Focus: Pete’s Dragon

By Michael Sragow
August 10, 2016
Human touch: David Lowery breathes poignancy and life into this fantastical tale of a wild child

Deep Focus: Suicide Squad

By Michael Sragow
August 4, 2016
The B Team: director David Ayer can't make this DC Comics rogues gallery work together

Deep Focus: Jason Bourne

By Michael Sragow
July 28, 2016
Run to me: Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass pick up the trail on action cinema's enduring Mr. Short-Term Memory